Paul Feinman was born on January 26, 1960, and passed away on March 31, 2021, he was an American attorney who served as an associate judge of the New York Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court, from June 2017 to March 2021.
During his time of death, he was 61 years old, he was the first openly gay member of the state’s highest court and retired recently.
His death came after just over a week after he abruptly retired from the state’s highest court “to attend to health concerns.”
Who was Paul Feinman?
From June 2017 to March 2021, he was an American attorney who served as an associate judge of the New York Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court.
In his career, he spent 20 years as a state judge prior to his elevation to the Court of Appeals first as a justice of the New York Supreme Court and the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division (the intermediate appellate courts in New York State).
He started his career as a public defender with the Legal Aid Society, and then served as a law clerk to Justice Angela Mazzarelli for seven and a half years, from 1989 to 1996. Feinman became involved in the L.G.B.T. Bar Association and in Democratic politics in the Manhattan neighborhoods of Chelsea and the West Village.
Besides this, he won an election to the New York City Civil Court bench, and at times was an acting New York Supreme Court justice in 1996. In 2012, he was elected to the Supreme Court. Then, he was nominated Feinman to the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, to the seat left vacant by the death of Sheila Abdus-Salaam in 2017.
On March 23, 2021, he retired from the Court of Appeals due to health concerns.
Wife
He is survived by his wife, Jay Robert Ostergaard, and his children.
Net Worth
His Net Worth was $700K USD as of 2021.